In this new feature series, read on-the-ground dispatches from key cities and festivals as they reopen following lockdown. Throughout the summer, these pieces will explore what it's like to be back on the dance floor in places where most or all Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted.

First off, Kiana Mickles spends the weekend at venues across New York City to see how vaccination passports and temperature checks are getting the party restarted.

At nearly 10 PM on a quiet corner on Myrtle Avenue, a line had yet to form outside Bossa Nova Civic Club. At the door, I was asked to add my full name to a contact tracing list. Following this, I flashed my ID, had my temperature taken and was given ground rules for the night. All attendants were asked to remain masked indoors unless seated at a table and to not stand idly in the venue, except by the bar and in the newly introduced backyard area. Since the small Bushwick club reopened in early May, the venue has been broadcasting their in-person events with a livestream series, Bossa Radio, which has brought on Bossa regulars like Umfang, quest?onmarc, Escaflowne and more over the past month. That night, the series had enlisted a starry lineup: Physical Therapy and OSSX, all night long.

Nick Boyd, who has been hosting Bossa Radio since its inception in April, says the response to the events has been heartening. "Whenever people ask me how it's going, I have to say, I can't believe so many of the same people who I really love are showing up every week. That's community."

The intimate venue, mainly composed of a small, checkered dance floor, has been reformatted in notable ways since the pandemic. The cushioned booths that once offered a place of respite from dance floor activity were partitioned with plexiglass, seating laughing, maskless friends. Awash in blue lighting, Gen Zs and millenials dressed in casual wear sat alone at the bar, on their phones, waiting for drinks or talking shop with the bartender. Feet tapped and heads nodded, as an invigorating blend of East Coast club music, garage, R&B, and trap filled the room. Many who I spoke to were vaccinated and seemed to be comfortable with the safety risks of attending the event.

"I was working for the entire time during the pandemic, and in public places, so I was constantly around other people," Ellie Botoman, 24, said laughing. "I think that was more of a concern for me than coming here. A lot of the same people come here all the time, so I know who I'm around to a certain degree."

In-person attendees at Bossa Nova Civic Club's Bossa Radio

At the time of writing, 47 percent of New York City's population are fully vaccinated, and 55.9 percent have received at least one dose. On Tuesday, June 1st, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that for the first time in eight months, there were zero fatalities in the city as a result of Covid-19. The seven-day positivity rate has also dropped below one percent.

Despite the optimistic numbers, some, like Han Yang, 31, still seemed cautious about returning to nightlife. "We finally got our vaccines, so I'm pretty excited to be back." Though she expressed concern about contracting Covid-19 at the event, she said the community ultimately brought her there. "When you're in this scene, you know these people, you meet and see them all the time, and you become friends with them. It's a tight-knit community, and I'd like to still be a part of that."

Starting June 1st, Bossa will ask for proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test via Excelsior Pass, a new digital "vaccine passport" created by New York State. The government-issued service is the first and only of its kind in the country, a combatant to the rise of fake vaccine card operations in the US. With this requirement, the club will be allowed to operate at full capacity with maskless dancing. As the curfews for indoor bars in New York have also been lifted as of Monday, May 31st, this means that Bossa can reclaim its former role as Brooklyn's favorite late-night spot. Guests can stay until the club's former closing time of 4 AM.

For club owners interested in safely operating at a greater capacity and permitting dancing at their events, Excelsior Pass is a fast (it takes about three minutes to set up) and reliable option. Across New York, clubs have been the first to experiment with the vaccine passport, inciting mixed responses from partygoers.

Thursday night at Bossa Nova Civic Club

Tucked underneath a scaffolding, the entrance to Rumi sits unassumingly on W 28th St. At 10 PM, a flashy assortment of guests waited in a bustling line outside, some sporting extravagant wigs, others with glittery eyelids, many barely wearing anything at all. Once they arrived at the door, a bouncer instructed all guests to flash their Excelsior Pass.

In the night's early hours, party founder Ladyfag spoke to me from behind a spiked BDSM-style leather mask, explaining the backlash she received after announcing they would only allow entry to people who could show vaccination proof through the app. "I got called a stupid bitch. I got a whole bunch of nasty messages," she said, as her stylists gingerly tended to hair and makeup. "You can't open at full capacity with a PCR test. Guests have to be at least two weeks out from their last vaccine shot. So I don't know why anyone is writing to me about a PCR test. It just doesn't make any sense."

"This way," she continued about the requirement, "I feel safer taking my mask off, and Eli [Escobar] does too." The event Ladyfag runs is called Battle Hymn, a circuit gay party that took place monthly at this same venue prior to the pandemic. I'm told tickets to Return To Rumi sold out in a matter of minutes, as many were anxious to attend the first Battle Hymn since the start of the pandemic.

A self-styled regular, Ray Scott, 36, arrived early with two of his friends who had never been to the event. "I feel like there is a renaissance upon us," he told me. "It feels very 1920s. Everybody's happy, everybody's saying hello, everybody's wanting to meet and greet and touch and dance."

For many, it would be their first party in a legal venue since 2020, and within minutes of entering the cavernous space, the heightened desire for touch and intimacy was palpable. Adjacent to the foyer's opulent tufted leather seating, a trio of shirtless men took turns making out with each other, a sight I saw increasingly as the night progressed from early evening to morning. Throughout Escobar's skillful curation of house, disco and ballroom music, a noticeable warmth blanketed the unmasked faces of attendants, who ranged from those in their early 20s to those in their early 50s.

Jalon Howard, 27, who was at Le Bain earlier that night—a Manhattan venue that also asks for the Excelsior Pass—trusts the science behind vaccines but also expressed concern over the ways some distinguished guests might bypass restrictions. "When I come to events like this, it's nice to know that they're [requiring the Excelsior Pass]. But I know there are also probably people slipping through the cracks because either they know the right people, or they're gaming the system."

Battle Hymn at Rumi

Other venues, like Ridgewood club Nowadays and Bushwick bar Mood Ring—the latter of which will see its grand reopening this Friday night—also request the Excelsior Pass or proof of a vaccine card before entry. Both only permit fully vaccinated people to enter. While Elsewhere has invited several DJs to play in the past few weeks, the space has been completely repurposed. The Bushwick club reintroduced its rooftop to the public as a restaurant and bar with live sets, starting in the early afternoon and closing in the early evening. No dancing is allowed yet unless it takes place within one's seat.

Most attending these Memorial weekend events welcomed the extreme measures clubs are taking to keep the wider nightlife community safe. But at the official launch party of midtown Manhattan venue Server Room, I was met with some contrasting perspectives on the continued seriousness of Covid-19.

Standing before an affluent and already buzzed group of millennials, I showed the bouncer my ID and got my temperature checked outside the new three-floor venue, which exists within the transformed VR World building on E 34th street, and aims to join VR gaming with live dance music.

By the early hour of 10 PM, the subterranean Club Level was the heart of the party. I watched a pair of women saunter into The Vault, a room lined with safety deposit boxes, artificial vines and a projection-mapping installation. Dressed in silver thongs, glittery stiletto boots, metallic crop tops and a cat-shaped mask composed of mirror tiles, they posed in front of the camera with movements as mellifluous as a dancer's. The duo appeared to be the entertainment highlight of the night, aside from the music, which galvanised a host of expensively dressed attendees in the late 20s to early 40s range.

Dancers on Saturday night at Server Room

John Sebastian, 33, and Jessica Gonzalez, 41, decided to check out the event because it was just around the corner from Gonzalez's home. It was their first major event in a venue since the start of the pandemic. Were they concerned about contracting Covid-19? "We're done with that," Sebastian told me before the pair declined to share their vaccination status.

It was also the first party in a legal venue for Bryan Herron, 24, who also expressed that he didn't care much about the potential risk of contracting or spreading Covid-19 at the event. "For the first time in my life, I'm living on my own. I have two roommates, we're all in our 20s, and we're all very aware of the fact that if we contract Covid-19, it won't be a big deal."

Nonetheless, Herron is looking forward to the future of clubbing in New York. "Everyone is buzzing about this summer," he said. "Summer 2021, it's something to be here in New York. It's something to be here for it."